I discovered today that I am not cut out to work in a grade school. I have issues with unnecessary noise, and the bell ringing every 45-50 minutes all day accompanied by the music to Super Mario and the principals message would drive me around the bend within a week. Even though I could get all my student loan debt forgiven, it is not worth it for my sanity.

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ďAll that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."-J.R.R Tolkien

I discovered today that I am not cut out to work in a grade school. I have issues with unnecessary noise, and the bell ringing every 45-50 minutes all day accompanied by the music to Super Mario and the principals message would drive me around the bend within a week. Even though I could get all my student loan debt forgiven, it is not worth it for my sanity.

Had a friend who walked out of a job interview at a certain pizza place when the animatronics floor show started. He said he just apologized to the interviewer, but that he knew he couldn't take that several times a day, every day.

Albeit - I thought it was said al-bite and that "All be it" was a phrase that some people said that was vaguely synonymous. I was very embarrassed to find out they were the same thing and I'd been pronouncing it wrong in my head for years (never said it). I still read it wrong in my head and have to correct my internal dialogue.

Americans will probably roll their eyes at this but I had no idea that the word "coloured" was racist. Of course, once I saw that I worked out that for someone to be coloured meant that some people were not coloured, rather than everyone's skin having a colour.

What can I say? I never used the word, but then I never had any reason to talk about someone's skin colour. People are people, you know? Our largest ethnic minority where I live is white and we're simply not very aware about race issues. I'm really glad I found out before I stuck my foot in it though.

Any American that expects other nationalities to keep up with our ever changing vocabulary for race relations needs a smack up side the head with a clue by 4. We can barely keep up - why would someone who doesn't live it be able to keep up. If I see it spelled our - I just assume the person is either South African or used to their vocabulary where Coloured is acceptable.

I once met someone who said her daughter was called, I think, Ermyone (or rather that's what I heard) after the girl in the Harry Potter books. I often wondered if they would change the pronunciation when they realised it was wrong.

For myself. I know perfectly well how to pronounce quay, but in my head, when I'm reading it will always be kway.

For myself. I know perfectly well how to pronounce quay, but in my head, when I'm reading it will always be kway.

Durn it all, you're going to make me go find a dictionary to find out the real pronunciation.

I've also heard it pronounced like 'key'.

I've heard 'key', 'kay', and 'kway', depending on who's talking.

It's sad how many people don't know how to spell queue. I work in a place where we have a call queue, and until I got there for YEARS on the phone list, there was the 'Que Calls' section. Every time an email gets sent out to the sales floor, it goes along the lines of:

Ms. So-and-so called into the que, was looking for someone who had talked to her before.

Although, the Que Calls could have been right, if someone decided to mix Spanish and English. I mean, we didn't know who was calling.

If you want to quickly know the meaning of a word or how to pronounce it, Google "define <word>". For most words, the definition appears with a phonetic guide, which has a little microphone next to it. Click on the microphone to hear the pronunciation.

For myself. I know perfectly well how to pronounce quay, but in my head, when I'm reading it will always be kway.

Durn it all, you're going to make me go find a dictionary to find out the real pronunciation.

I've also heard it pronounced like 'key'.

I've heard 'key', 'kay', and 'kway', depending on who's talking.

It's sad how many people don't know how to spell queue. I work in a place where we have a call queue, and until I got there for YEARS on the phone list, there was the 'Que Calls' section. Every time an email gets sent out to the sales floor, it goes along the lines of:

Ms. So-and-so called into the que, was looking for someone who had talked to her before.

Although, the Que Calls could have been right, if someone decided to mix Spanish and English. I mean, we didn't know who was calling.

I've seen people use 'queu' or something like that instead of cue, which for me seems strange since cue is an english word at least, where queue is latin/french, so I was thinking anglophone people would make the error the other way.

As far as I know, "quay" is properly pronounced "key." From Eric Bogle, The Band Played Waltzing Matilda:

Quote

And as our ship pulled into Circular QuayI looked at the place where my legs used to beAnd thanked Christ there was nobody waiting for meTo grieve, and to mourn, and to pity.

Blows the rhyme scheme right out of the water if it's pronounced "kay" or "kway".

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Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Virg - true, but I think there are regional variations on pronunciation. The etymology I found online says "variant of Middle English key, keye, caye, "wharf"". So, I think pronouncing it "key" or "caye" would be justified, while "kway" is an example of a literal pronunciation.

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My cousin's memoir of love and loneliness while raising a child with multiple disabilities will be out on Amazon soon! Know the Night, by Maria Mutch, has been called "full of hope, light, and companionship for surviving the small hours of the night."

If you want to quickly know the meaning of a word or how to pronounce it, Google "define <word>". For most words, the definition appears with a phonetic guide, which has a little microphone next to it. Click on the microphone to hear the pronunciation.

I've been spoiled on the desktop, where I can highlight a word, and right click, at which point one of my options is to google the highlighted. (Flamingvixen, don't usually use other browsers, so cant vouch). I do love my iPad, but manually opening another window, after manipulating it into copying, is just enough trouble to make me skip it. (why yes, I was one of the children who only kneew words from reading them, and mispronounced, I believe Xanth is what finally made the connection between the spoken word eh-pit-oh-me and written word epi-tome. I blame middle school science where'd we learned the prefix epi-